Thermal Conductivity of Polycrystalline Materials

Abstract

A three‐dimensional Poisson‐Voronoi tessellation model is used to simulate the microstructure of polycrystalline materials consisting of random shape and size grains. The model is used to calculate the thermal conductivity of homogeneous and isotropic polycrystalline materials which may be anisotropic on a microlevel. The calculated thermal conductivity is found to be close to the experimental and the theoretical values. For trigonal, tetragonal, and hexagonal materials, the effective thermal conductivity shows a systematic variation with the change in the anisotropy of the single crystal.